F5, Inc. (NASDAQ:FFIV) Q1 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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So that’s the type of project for the large kind of multiyear subscription. We have also a number of other projects that are now with NGINX. There are just typically new applications, new modern applications that have been in test and development, and they’re moving into production. And when they move into production, there is a need for strong networking and security capabilities that NGINX brings as a complement to, for example, Kubernetes orchestration. So we’re seeing a lot of these projects. And now with our Distributed Cloud offerings, we’re also offering SaaS solution, and that is, I would say, a missing part of our business, but it’s a different model of deployment where typically, a long tail of applications that would not have had a traditional ADC in front of them in the past, customers are choosing to protect them with a SaaS security solution for F5.

So those are, I would say, the three types of implementations. But of course, the multiyear sort of subscription are more anchored on the first model that I mentioned.

Frank Pelzer : Meta, in relation to gross margins, particularly product gross margins, our view of that for the year has not changed. And we talked about the supply chain improvements starting to benefit our product gross margins really in the latter half of this year, even all the way up into Q4. But the real benefit that we’re going to see is going to be in FY ’24 in terms of product gross margin improvement. We still had the purchase price variance and expedite fees that we’re working through the components that make up our box builds through this year, and we still have got a few critical components where we are having to go in the broker market. So largely, we will start to see improvement in Q4, but more of it you will see in FY ’24.

Operator: Our next question is from James Fish with Piper Sandler.

James Fish : On the software number, I don’t get the reluctance to not give a number at this point. I get — we’re kind of missing the 15% to 20%, but it’s the main question we’re getting after hours. So any clarity on that would be helpful, Frank. And should we be assuming the kind of net new business, double-digit decline in new recurring software should continue for the remainder of the year? Or are you expecting this to kind of improve as that new business comp gets easier in the second half of the year? And just I have a quick follow-up after.

Frank Pelzer : Sure. And I appreciate the question, Jim. We — again, as François mentioned, a second ago, we are not updating our 15% to 20% guidance because we do still see a path to get there. Again, it’s harder path. I think that we’re not necessarily expecting to change in environment. And part of the reason why we’re not updating the back half is because the visibility is cloudy right now in terms of demand. And with — when we came into the year, we talked about over 50% of the revenue that we expected as part of that 15% to 20% growth was going to come from new business activity. And that we didn’t expect that to grow, but we didn’t expect to see the types of percentage declines that we saw in Q1. And so just with the lack of visibility that we’ve got right now, we don’t have a new range to offer to you today. But we do feel like it’s less likely that we will be in that range.

James Fish : Okay. And then François, I’m surprised no one’s asked about it at this point, but on the strategy side with this Lilac deal. Why Lilac? What’s the competitive advantage? And is it hope more to align with product overlap against some of your kind of newer competitors like an Akamai or Cloudflare is it more to be able to offer that SaaS-like experience inside a customers’ environment? And just trying to understand why couldn’t this get done with NGINX and Volterra already?

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